Actor Morgan Freeman will be honored at the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced.

Actress Amy Adams and film director Pedro Almodovar made the announcement this morning in Hollywood.

In a press release, the HFPA said: "Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman is one of the most recognizable figures in American cinema. His works are among the most critically and commercially successful films of all time and Freeman himself ranks 10th among worldwide top-grossing actors of all time."

Previous winners of the DeMille Award include Sidney Poitier, Barbra Streisand, Robert De Niro, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese.